quickly skipping over the fact i haven't posted for months (too hot to spin/knit/crochet, too lazy to sew :)) and moving on to the fact that the fabulous paper flower tutorial on craftster has disappeared. so here's my version for dogsarecool.

paper flowers 1

1) start with a strip of paper. i use what is called sugar paper in the uk, it's fairly stiff paper, but not as stiff as thin card.

paper flowers 2

2) fold in half, then concertina. folding like this will make 8 petals (4 valleys), 3 valleys will make 6 petals.

paper flowers 3

3) fold in half to find the centre.

paper flowers 4

4) fasten at the centre with a staple, at the side where all the folds (valleys) are, not at the side that has the spare ends. you can fasten in different ways - if you want to make a wired crown you can make a hole and fasten with wire, weaving the ends together into a crown.

paper flowers 5

5) cut out petal shape. these will be symmetrical about the folds (valleys), which are at the base of this picture. there was some technical reason for the holes in the petals but i don't find it makes much difference whether they are there or not, but they look pretty :) you can cut one side, then fold across to the other and cut along the outline so both sides match (if that makes any sense at all...).

paper flowers 6

6) open out each petal, pressing the fold flat close to the staple.

paper flowers 7

7) to make a hibiscus/daffodil type flower use a wider strip of paper so you can cut a deeper centre/stamen section.

paper flowers 8

8) keep a solid centre or cut into strips for daffodil/narcissus, cut into stamens for hibiscus.

paper flowers 9

9) hibiscus stylee

paper flowers 10

10) half-heartedly opened out, you can smooth out the creases in each petal to help it stay open.

mail me if this isn't clear enough.